I applaud you for not getting suckered like must gun owners into voting against their own economic interests and the rest of their freedoms. Too many gun owners are more about making up in guns what they lack in brains and manhood or dick size. I also like that you get the fact that you can't convert all that Repub rhetoric or gun ownership into being able to feed your family or buy them health care. It only gives them a feeling of a false sense of superiority or security that leaves them instead more vulnerable and a slave to the rich.

I hope you are right

@Lorajay I believe I am, at least about Iowa. There was a murder by shooting many years back in my hometown, which had a rep as a rough place a lot of the time. There was a well-known local bully and bar brawler that was shot to death in a bar while unarmed by a guy he had been bullying, among other people, for years. This guy was taunted by the bully, left the bar, came back shortly with a handgun, and then shot the guy (in the back, no less) while he was unarmed and continuing to taunt him.

Needless to say, the local cops didn't give a damn or shed any tears about the bully being shot to death, and most of the town wanted to give the shooter a medal, but in the end the shooter was prosecuted, convicted by a jury, and sent to prison for 20 to life for 2nd degree murder. So, at least in Iowa, you can't shoot an unarmed adult to death, even if they are taunting you (it helps that both guys were white trash). But in Texas or the South, I bet, it would be a different story. Iowans may be mostly idiots who vote for Repubs, but at least our criminal justice system is relatively sane and fair.

Curious, I suspect you love a warm gun … but what about the separation of State & church that’s disappearing due to your votes?

On a site devoted to those who don’t just feel - but have experienced their rights diminish under Republican regimes, how do you square the lack of loss of gun ownership under, say, Obama - to the overt loss of equal citizenship as Atheists under, say, trump?

@Varn I genuinely have zero concern of any push from the republicans to force religion on me or anyone else. I am a republican (though I’ve voted democrat a time or two) and I am an atheist. Oddly enough, it disappoints me to see that people are actually having to fight FOR their religious rights through legal action taken to protect their individual right to pray at sporting events or in the hallways at school for example. I don’t care if they pray and I don’t care if they if they give me a weird look when I don’t. They have that right and I would gladly fight for their right to do that. I also have no concern at all that any group or government agency is going to force me to pray just because others want to.

I do, however, have a concern over the infringement on an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. The second amendment is what gives us the ability to protect our selves from any group or government that would want to force us to pray or strip the rights that others that feel that it does them any good pray.

When you remove a society’s ability to protect itself, they have absolutely no choice but to bend to your will. That includes forcing them to pray (Iran, Afghanistan, probably France in 10 or so years, etc.) or imprisoning or killing you for praying (China, North Korea, etc.).

@CourtJester can't wait to see the video of you protecting yourself from the government.

@CourtJester Yes, you’re a tuff loaner, willing to be marched off or shot down defending your assumed rights. If you were a father, would you also ignore your children's right not to recite forced prayer in school?

It’s obvious your desire to own every gun you can get your hands on trumps any concern over the equal rights of Atheists/ Agnostics. So they’ve pulled you in over guns…

Doubt you’ve outed yourself here, but it’s obvious you’re only here to harass, discourage and demean ... with nothing to do with or for Atheism. ...just another vote for trump and infringement on the rights of ‘Americans’ not to have religion forced upon us.

@Varn Didn’t I say that it shouldn’t be forced on anyone? I’m not a democrat, so I’m not into this whole cancel culture crap. Just because you don’t like it does not mean that everyone else should hate it. Jeez man. Live and let live.

If you don’t want to pray; don’t pray. I personally sing the “butt fuck Jesus” song in my head when people pray, but I don’t sing it out loud and I don’t try to keep them from praying. If they insisted that I pray, then I’d get rude, but a simple “I’m good. Thanks” always does the trick.

I personally love shooting. I grew up hunting, I spent plenty of time using them in the Marines, I still hunt, and I help with a local youth trap shooting team when I’m free on the weekend.

I don’t expect you to enjoy shooting and I’m not going to cry because you don’t want to. That’s your right. It makes zero sense that the people that hate guns, also hate the police that would be the only ones to protect them when their gun rights are gone, but that’s their right.

The party of peace and acceptance is the party canceling everything and throwing temper tantrums when the world doesn’t see things exactly as they do. It’s become comical at this point.

@CourtJester You call yourself a Republican, so obviously attack Democrats, nothing new there.

I’m talking about mandatory prayer, not voluntary. And when it’s forced or expected in a public setting, there’s a social expectation or demand you do it, or be ostracized for not. Like any god oath, it attempts to ‘out’ then punish you for not being ‘of the body.’

...and back to guns. Yes, your obvious priority. Many of us around here own and use guns. We don’t need to worship them, though. Thing is, we treat and use them for what they’re meant, not as ‘props,’ like the smirking assholes above.. Flaunting guns as an act of intimidation, or using them on society for mass body counts is nobody’s right.

...all the black & white thinking.. I don’t need to love hunting, shooting, or killing to own guns, or, to limit those designed for mass murder. ...yah, nothing but guns ... and a brainwashed disdain for those those who’d simply limit types and capabilities. This guy went from HS to college to become a cop, so don’t lecture me on the police.

So yup, separation of State & church is not on your radar … just guns and Democrats.. And we’re supposed to ‘encourage’ you to participate? Hell, if this were a Republican gun club, sure ... but it’s not.

That’s the attitude!

Glad you’re on the side of right, ours ~

@Varn Democrats can own guns, you know.

As a veteran and military historian, I've always been interested in weapons of all kinds. But I understand the proper relationship of the Amendments: our 2nd Amendment rights are not a primary right, they're equal to the rest. I sincerely defend everyone's rights; especially freedom of speech.

But all rights have responsibilities, and firearm ownership is an awesome responsibility. Those are weapons, not toys. I carry concealed because I've come in contact, through my job, with people who have made credible threats to have me killed and have the contacts and means to try it. I would never walk around with an AR on my back in public. There's just no call for it. It's not "exercising your rights", it's intimidation; the equivalent of exercising your right to free speech by shouting in people's faces. Those clowns give responsible gun owners, the vast majority, a bad name.

@Paul4747 I am right there with you … and a Democrat..

His neck is "camoed"........or he's holding a rat under his chin.